Austrian explorer whose adventures include making the first ascent of the north face of the Eiger in the Swiss Alps in 1938. As one of the first Westerners to hike through the Himalayas, he befriended the Dalai Lama and became his tutor. The film Seven Years in Tibet was based on his 1953 memoir. A German magazine revealed in 1997 that Harrer was a Nazi who enlisted in the SS.